We had known there was a problem with the garage door. A couple of times Sherry told me I forgot to lower the door when I left, but I was pretty sure I had pushed the button to bring it down. Then I noticed times when it would reverse instead of finishing its trip. The last straw was last weekend when it just refused to close.
I got out my trusty WD-40 when I had time, and thoroughly soaked all the rollers and hinges. I sprayed the top of the track on both sides, the bottom of the track, the chain, and finally the nylon gears inside the motor chassis. Nothing helped.
I decided it was a deceased opener.
Searching online, I found a reasonably-priced unit with excellent ratings, and ordered it delivered.
The box sat in the (now empty) garage for a few days (with the jealous cars outside in the heat), waiting for the weekend when I could spend the hours required to install it.
Almost home Friday, I called to see if I needed to stop anywhere. That's when Sherry told me the air conditioner had stopped cooling. It was already too late to call anyone. They had already checked, but I double-checked the breakers and settings. The fans worked, but the compressor did not run. I guessed it was either the start capacitor for the compressor or the compressor itself, but I couldn't locate the capacitor in the outdoor unit to check it. I figured it must be built into the compressor.
I called the air conditioner company we use, and left a message for Saturday morning. They knew us, so I hoped we would get a little quicker attention than just anyone calling.
My son and his family had come by, so we left to eat out and keep cool. While we were out, my son discovered his car had a flat. It wasn't just a slow leak that needed a little air--it was really flat. We went back to my house to get the compressor and aired it up (no nails in sight), but it appeared to losing pressure too quickly to trust even for a short distance. We (mostly he) changed the tire to the little pretend tire they hide under the cargo area in the back.
It's a good thing we had the compressor, because it was down to 20 psi instead of the 60 it should have. We aired it up, and it seemed to be fine.
Back at home for the evening, we kept the fans on through the night and slept pretty soundly. Perhaps too soundly. I missed the air conditioner company calling shortly after 8 am. It was only about half an hour afterward that I returned the call, but she said in the meantime she had gotten several calls (and made commitments) that might keep them from getting to us today. I told her I understood, but I would appreciate anything she could do.
It wasn't long afterward that she called back, telling me Jack was on his way to fix it. I was being lazy still, but I quickly got dressed and greeted him at the door. What a relief!
He heard the growling noise when I started the unit, and said it was probably the capacitor. It was in a hidden area I didn't know about, and was obviously "popped out" on top. While he was replacing it, I mentioned in passing that the drain a few steps away had been flowing lately. He said he was glad I told him about it, because that meant the primary drain in the house was blocked.
"There's a primary drain inside?"
"Yes, the one on the outside is always in front of a window so you'll notice when it drains and fix the primary."
News to me.
After replacing the capacitor and testing the system, he went inside to get to the primary drain. It's in the bathroom under the sink, connected into the sink drain just over its P trap. He cut the pipe and removed a section.The blockage was in the area above and inside the P trap. After cleaning it thoroughly, he re-installed the assembly.
By this time I had agreed to an annual contract that would involve him checking all this and cleaning the outdoor coils twice a year.
While he was finishing up, I started to look over what I needed to do to install the new garage door opener. I spread the parts out on the floor, and scanned the connections of the other unit. "Big job," I thought. That's when I noticed some grass mingled with cobwebs in one corner of the garage door opening, coincidentally in front of a safety device for the current opener. As I wiped away the bit of stuff, I asked myself, "What if that was the problem with the door closing?"
Curious, I cautiously walked over and pressed the button to lower the door. It worked.
I wasn't ready to believe that little bit of trash had caused me to buy another door opener, so I tried it again.
After it had made three or four successful trips up and down, I decided I had just been too stupid to consider that it was just the safety mechanism causing the problem.
So my Saturday that was going to be long and sweaty turned out much better.
Looking back:
The garage door opener problem was just a bit of trash.
The air conditioner problem was the capacitor, a much less expensive part than the compressor.
While the air conditioner man was here, he fixed the blocked drain, possibly saving us a lot of money if the other one clogged.
Note to self: Watch the little things. Keep them little so they don't cause big things.
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